Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have stolen a march on the other federal parties by promising to shed more light on MPs’ and senators’ expenses. They are in closer touch with the voters.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, in the Commons in June, promises to shed light on the expenses of senators and MPs.

Published on Fri Aug 16 2013

Back in March, Alberta Premier Alison Redford stopped for lunch at Roy’s Place in Claresholm. She and two others ordered $11.45 “Canadian burger” plates and somebody splurged on a $1.25 side of beef gravy. They were served by Isabella, at table 3. With coffee and tea, the bill came to $46.04. And the tab reminded them to “remember your toque” as they headed back out into the winter chill.

If there’s a convincing reason the Parliament of Canada can’t muster the same transparency, given the Senate expense scandal that has official Ottawa in its ugly grip, we have yet to hear it.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been mute as a carp in the wake of a damning audit showing that one of his high-profile Senate appointees, Sen. Pamela Wallin, improperly billed more than $120,000 in travel expenses for speeches she didn’t give, for partisan Tory fundraising, for stopovers in Toronto where she owns a condo, and for a slew of private matters unconnected with Red Chamber business.

Harper’s silence is a gift to the opposition. The New Democrats have been asking, “Why did the Prime Minister say he reviewed Wallin’s expenses and found no problems?” The Liberals, too, want Harper to “come clean, explain why he misled Canadians, why he refused to call in the police and why he showed such poor judgment.” These questions aren’t going away.

Harper may hope to turn the page on the Senate debacle with a Throne Speech in the fall, to outline a fresh agenda. But that won’t address the expense scandal. Nor is it likely to satisfy the vast majority of Canadians who want some heavy wattage shed on how Parliamentarians — senators and MPs alike — spend the $520 million a year that we earmark for the place.

One recent survey found that 86 per cent of those polled believe that MPs and senators are fiddling their expenses, and even more want them posted online. If asked, they’d also probably support some general tightening-up of the generous allowances our lawmakers bestow upon themselves. This is an issue that goes to the credibility not only of the battered Conservatives, but that of their rivals as well.

On that score Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have stolen a march on the others on transparency, and have shown they are in closer touch with an angry electorate. Trudeau promises that Liberal MPs and senators will “raise the bar” this fall by voluntarily and proactively posting their detailed travel, accommodation, hospitality and other expenses online, in searchable form. He is also pushing for less secrecy in the way expense-monitoring panels operate. Both would be welcome reforms.

Granted, Parliament does put MPs’ expenses online. But only the aggregate totals in broad categories such as travel, hospitality and events, employee costs, advertising, printing and office costs. We know, for example, that Harper spent $51,294 on travel in 2011-12 as an MP and $21.65 on hospitality. But we don’t know where he travelled or why, or what his hospitality involved. A couple of cheeseburgers, at a guess? Without more detail than this it’s hard to know whether any given MP’s expenses are legitimate.

The Senate operates in much the same deliberately opaque way. Wallin expensed $34,267 on staff and office in March, April and May. And she claimed $5,469 for living expenses, $40,547 for travel and nothing for hospitality. But good luck getting any details, unless you’re a Deloitte auditor.

This doesn’t wash anymore. Not after the antics of former Tory senators Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau, and former Liberal Mac Harb. Together they racked up $500,000 in improper housing and travel expenses that they are repaying only after hugely costly audits. The public anger has not been pretty. Senators are getting mocked wherever they go.

The Conservatives pay lip service to the need for more transparency and accountability; certainly, they campaigned on it. They have the power to bring in reforms. But we’re still waiting.

Canadians deserve to know who’s lunching on their dime. Redford’s Progressive Conservatives get that. Why is it so hard for their federal cousins?

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